Prayers for Sale - Sandra Dallas. First, I'm a huge Sandra Dallas fan. The Diary of Mattie Spencer and the Persian Pickle Club are two of my all time favs. This one - was a limp excuse for a Sandra Dallas book. The time period was intesting, it was nice to touch base with one of the other characters from an earlier book, but the plot was phoned in (an older woman tells stories to a younger one) and the ending is ridiculously over the top happy.

A Reliable Wife Very gothic, the plot had some good twists. It reminded me a little of the Crimson Petal and the White (which I loved).

End of Overeating - Brilliant. I was a little amused, the book went on for 200+ pages about why it's so tough to stop eating sugar, fat and salt. Their final technique (presented in a few short pages at the end) for not eating these foods - well, just don't eat them.

Local News - just okay. It was slow and not much happened, but I think that was the intent.

Dogs of Babel - I really liked Carolyn Parkhurst's Lost and Found but this was very different. I loved this book when it stayed firmly grounded in reality, when it veered into a little bit of surrealness, it lost me a bit. Overall, an excellent, sweet book that made me cry.

Pretty in Plaid - while nothing tops Bitter is the New Black - this book had a few laugh out loud moments. I'm such a big Jen Lancaster fan, I think she's hilarious. We're about the same age, so her memories of 80s fashion/music made me nostalgic. She just seems like a person who would be really fun to have a drink with and some serious girl talk.

Girls in Trucks - turned out to be a series of interelated stories and not a novel. It was just okay for me, dawg. The prose was nice in places.

Citizen Girl - someone in last month's thread posted they hated this book, and I know it's sick, but sometimes I like to read books I hate because hating on books can be fun. So, I checked this one out of the library. I ended up liking it okay- probably because I could identify with the feeling of being a powerless corporate drone with a boss who makes demands that seem impossible to put into action. I hated the "precious" character naming, and it was over the top in places, but overall I liked it.

Life of Pi - everyone keeps saying how fabulous this book is, so I finally read it. I can see why other people liked it, but it was way too religious for me and I dislike books that are surreal. It does get bonus points for the M. Night Shamalayan ending, which nearly redeemed it for me.

Home Safe - Elizabeth Berg is another favorite author but this book kind of sucked. The main character was so helpless and weak. I know there have to be real people like this, but I just wanted to SLAP HER. And negative points for trite happy ending.

Serena - gothic and over the top and I couldn't put it down. Disliked ALL the main characters and didn't understand their motivations, but somehow still compulsively readable.

I just finished reading Julie & Julia by Julie Powell. I have to admit I was disappointed. I didn't like Julie very much, and there was very little in the book about Julia's life, and most of that was from her husband Paul's perspective. I hope this is one of those cases where the movie is better than the book.

I'm also reading My Life in France Julia's autobiography, which I am enjoying very much.

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Penguin

On the internet no one knows you are typing with your beak.

An exercise in futility still counts as exercise!!

"There's a pattern to the randomness!" ~ Artie ~ Warehouse 13

"That's the only break you get, so I hope you enjoyed it" ~~Cathe, STS, Meso 2

"Weakness is hard, but weakness doesn't have to mean defeat!" ~ Lysa TerKeurst

I read J&J last year and liked it - I'm looking forward to the movie. I usually love Amy Adams, but I'm horrified by what she's done to her hair for the movie - so mousy and strawlike! Meryl Streep looks like a HOOT.

i loooved Dogs of Babel, one of the saddest books ever. it does go a little surreal but i am just so in love with the characters and the over all sadness that i can over look it.

i am working on a Morgan Llewellyn book right now called The Elementals. I think it's old, it was a used book store find. It's definitely not like her usual stuff, and it's becoming a slow read for me, but it's interesting.

I recently read The Time Traveler's Wife by Audrey Niffenegger, which I have mixed feelings about. The concept is really interesting and has a lot of potential, I just think the author could have done a lot more with the story. The whole book, I kept waiting for something, like maybe a twist, or I don't know, just something. (But maybe that's the point, since the book is actually about waiting.) It was somewhat pretentious and name-droppy, and nearly all the characters sounded exactly the same. Anywho, I can see how most people who have read loved it.

I'm currently reading what has been my favorite book for about ten years, since I read it in 8th grade: Watership Down by Richard Adams. It's overly descriptive at times, but I love the story, the characters, and everything else about it.

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This could be the very minute I'm aware I'm alive...I can make my first steps as a child of 25 - Chocolate, Snow Patrol

I think that Life of Pi was one of the greatest books I ever read. I am not religious at all, in fact, I am rather anti-religious but I don't think it was about religion. At first, I was taken aback by all the pondering on various religions but fortunately, it became quickly obvious it's not a book about religion. I read it 4 years ago and I think I will have to reread it.

I just finished a truly awesome book, Brothers by Yu Hua. It's very entertaining but you must be an avid reader - 640 pages. Although that is only half the size of The Suitable Boy (the author's name escapes me at the moment - East Indian - also a terrific book - 1340 pages of great reading!!).

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Dearest Schumeany: Yes, those are size 4 jeans hugging my posterior. Thank you for being such motivation!!!

I love to read books about time traveling, fantasy and mysteries
I am currently finishing up a book called Kushiel's Dart by Jacqueline Carey.
It has a very interesting story and lots of interesting characters.
It has a little of everything from love to war, it is the first book in a series of 3 books. I can['t wait to get to the end to start the next book....

I think Laurell K. Hamliton is into some creepy wish fulfillment. In both of her series - one dark, curly haired woman (surprisingly like LKH herself!) is the object of raging desire of every beautiful man she meets (all with long long long hair). The first couple of Anita Blake books were awesome, but it's all orgies and little plot now. To be fair, the Merry Gentry started out with orgies.

I still read them, but it's mostly "flip flip flip flip" to get past the sex scenes which are repetitive to get to the 5-10 pages that actually advance the plot per book.

I finished The Strain and it was okay. It was very much written like a movie. There were some creepy bits, but some huge gaping plot holes. There was also a lot of filler, I really felt the authors were stretching to make a trilogy.